Tunc, Tanfer EminTunc, GokhanCivil Engineering2024-07-052024-07-05202220040-165X1097-372910.1353/tech.2022.0108https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2022.0108https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14411/1779Tunc, Gokhan/0000-0002-8307-1060; Tunc, Tanfer Emin/0000-0002-2922-3916In 1946, Turkish entrepreneur Vehbi Koc signed an agreement with the U.S. firm General Electric to build and operate its first light bulb factory in the Near/Middle East, in Istanbul. This private joint venture introduced new manufacturing techniques, business practices, and consumer habits to Turkey, opening channels of postwar technological exchange. Closer examination of the GE-Koc partnership reveals that during the early Cold War, the transfer and embedding of American technologies in Turkey was a politically complicated process of innovation that required constant adaptation. Fraught with unforeseeable obstacles, it also required cautious negotiation with multiple transnational actors. The story of the GE-Koc partnership thus adds a new dimension to historical understandings of the Turkish Cold War experience and the Americanization of the region. It illustrates how transferring a nonmilitary, soft-power, domestic technologythe light bulb-played a significant role in Turkish-American relations and therefore contributes to studies of U.S. Cold War diplomacy through transnational investment in innovation.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess[No Keyword Available]ArticleQ2Q4633749774WOS:00086638590000535848238